Mattress Shopping Guide

If you find yourself tossing and turning, waking up exhausted, dealing with back aches, or just not experiencing the best sleep on a nightly basis, then it's time to consider a new mattress. Why hold yourself back from a good night's sleep? The mattress market is booming as more manufacturers discover bigger and better ways to treat your snoozin' self, and you should be benefitting from this newfound zeal for good sleep.

For someone who already knows the mattress they want, you can skip this breakdown and go straight to our top mattress picks. However, if you want a little more insight in how to find the best bed of your life, keep reading.

Why Do You Need a New Mattress?

Mattresses aren't cheap, and if they are, you'll probably have to replace it for a higher quality one soon. So we get that you're trying to save money by keeping your old college mattress or justify sleeping on a futon for just a little bit longer.

We're here to tell you that it's ok to sleep better.

A new mattress can help alleviate common aches associated with normal growing pains. Does your back hurt as soon as you get out of bed? You could have been spending 8 hours resting your body in a healing way, but instead, your body continued to work against a non-conforming mattress, keeping you sore for the morning.

You might have slept on random couches and old mattresses in college with no regard to your sleeping habits, but it was never the ideal choice. Now that you're older, it's time you come to terms with your body's craving for a good bed.

The Difference Between Foam and Innerspring

As you shop, you'll typically see three types of mattresses in the mix: Foam, Innerspring, and Hybrid. Deciding the type of mattress you want can help you narrow your choices from the getgo, preventing some shopper's fatigue.

Foam Mattresses

All-foam mattresses are advancing more and more in the industry, especially with their pliability and ease of delivery. You don't have to know too much about physics to understand that it's easier to compress a foam mattress into a box than an innerspring mattress.

Because of this, the majority of bed-in-a-box products you'll see will consist primarily of foam layers. This makes them the easiest to order online, unwrap, and start sleeping on.

But, ease of delivery shouldn't be your main priority when purchasing a new mattress. Foam offers positives and negatives when compared to its cohorts in the mattress industry.

The Pros of an All-Foam Mattress

Sleepers who love the feeling of being hugged by their mattress (often described as sleeping "in" the mattress rather than "on") usually turn to foam mattresses by default. Foam layers conform to the body, offering a cradle-like feel.

For side sleepers and lighter weight sleepers, foam mattresses usually provide the softness that works best for their sleeping positions.

Foam mattresses are also renowned for their motion isolation. Because there aren't any coils transferring movement from one side to the other, all-foam mattresses are perfect for multiple people.

When one person gets out of bed in the middle of the night to use the restroom, the other can stay sound asleep. Light sleepers love this aspect of all-foam mattresses, helping them stay asleep when they'd normally be woken up.

As new all-foam mattresses are introduced to the market, durability and firmness has improved. In the past, all-foam mattresses were prone to break down quicker than a hybrid or innerspring mattress, leaving sleepers with a body-shaped dip in the mattress after about a year of use.

Beds have incorporated denser foam layers to counteract this pain point, giving sleepers a long-lasting, firmer memory foam mattress.

The Cons of an All-Foam Mattress

Whereas some sleepers enjoy sinking into their mattress, others would rather sleep "on" their mattress, making foam the lesser choice for what they're looking for.

Along with this, foam mattresses tend to trap heat more than innerspring mattresses. Because they have no open spaces to really ventilate the bed, all-foam mattresses aren't the best option for anyone who naturally sleeps warm.

While new all-foam mattresses are implementing denser foam materials to increase firmness with certain beds, they still can't compete with the firmness level offered by innerspring and hybrid mattresses.

Innerspring Mattresses

Innerspring mattresses are the traditional choice for most big mattress companies. Since coil systems are vulnerable to being damaged in the compression process, they're usually delivered to your door with a delivery person in tow to help set up.

You won't find a bed-in-a-box waiting for you on your doorstep after work in the case of the innerspring.

The Pros of an Innerspring Mattress

Innerspring mattresses can help give your back the support it needs, especially when paired with more premium materials. Along with this, air travel between coils gives an innerspring mattress the extreme advantage when it comes to heat transfer.

The Cons of an Innerspring Mattress

If manufactured improperly or cheaply made, coil systems can do more harm than good when it comes to back support. Innersprings can end up creating pressure spots if support isn't distributed evenly within the mattress. Pay close attention to user reviews if you decide to go down the innerspring mattress route.

Another downside of innerspring mattresses is the lack of motion isolation. Whereas all-foam mattresses really limit movement between sleepers, innerspring mattresses can amplify it. For light sleepers who have a restless partner, or even a big dog who sleeps in the bed, this can prevent you from getting a solid eight hours of sleep.

Hybrid Mattresses

Combining the best of both mattress types, hybrid mattresses can usually be associated with the highest costs on the mattress spectrum. However, a higher price will reflect the care of engineering that was invested in your new bed.

The Pros of a Hybrid Mattress

Hybrid models typically address the issues brought on by all-foam or innerspring mattresses. The heat traps of all-foam mattresses are solved with the addition of coils and firmness concerns of innersprings are softened with foam layers.

By combining the best of both worlds, hybrid mattresses are usually the best match for picky sleepers. You'll find that most luxury mattresses use a hybrid engineering method to achieve an advanced mattress.

The Cons of a Hybrid Mattress

With the goodness of hybrid mattresses comes a literal price. You'll see that these can reach well into the thousands, which can be the deciding factor for someone on a budget.

However, most hybrid mattress companies provide an easy-to-use payment program where you can pay off your new bed. So, if you're in need of a new bed but can't shell out a grand right this minute, don't completely shy away from the idea just yet.

Sleeping Positions

No one mattress is going to be the perfect fit for every sleeper out there. Where one person sleeps flat on their stomach, another sleeps strictly on their side. Each body type is different, and because of this, a mattress that works for one person might be terrible for another.

We've analyzed mattress reviews to give a better look at which body types and sleepers liked each bed the most. If you know your sleeping profile, this will help you decide which bed will best match up with you.

Sleeping Trials

The mattresses you'll see listed are all available online, meaning you don't need to visit a huge box store and have a salesperson linger over you while you try out a bed.

For someone who feels more comfortable buying something they've tried out first, rest assured knowing that each of our top picks offers a generous trial period. These manufacturers know that it takes more than just 5 minutes of laying on a bed to know how it'll feel for the next ten years.

It's recommended that you give your mattress at least 30 nights to really know how it properly feels. This allows the bed to conform to your sleeping style. If you aren't loving the mattress after those 30 days, you can typically return your mattress at no cost to you.

Each mattress has a different policy, so read up on these trial periods before you make your purchase. You can find generous time frames up to 365 nights or ones that barely extend past 30 days.

Trusting our Top Picks

Navigating the many choices for every consumer purchase can be challenging. Our team spends hours doing research, combing through forums, and reading consumer reviews on even the most basic of household items, and we summarize that information in clear, precise comparisons.

Join the millions that have trusted BuyersGuide.org to help them make smarter buying decisions. We help our readers spend their money wisely and find the right product to suit their specific needs. Our independent expert reviews and data-driven shopping recommendations empower you find the mattress that's right for you.

What Sets Us Apart?

We leverage user data to understand decision-making and put the best products in front of each user. We tailor our comparisons to what matters to our user's needs, specific or broad. We keep our content up to date, we are constantly looking for new merchants and products to compare, and we are quick to remove any that are outdated or no longer meeting our standards.

Our rankings change day-to-day based on our proprietary algorithms that crunch data to identify top-performing products and tailor recommendations to exactly what our readers are looking for.

Have a question or want to make a recommendation? We love to hear from our readers and are always looking for new products to include on our site. Get in touch!